Sermon Central
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Do Right!
Contributed by Jerry Flury on Jan 10, 2012 (message contributor)
Summary: As believers we told in God’s Word that we are free. However, that freedom is not a license to go out and do whatever we want to do. We have been called to do right and to do right at all times in all circumstances wherever we are.
Do Right!
As believers we told in God’s Word that we are free. However, that freedom is not a license to go out and do whatever we want to do. We have been called to do right and to do right at all times in all circumstances wherever we are. Too many Christians have yielded to the peer pressure confronting them from friends, family, work, school, society, and even other Christians. What is needed today are believers that will say “We will do right regardless of whether or not anyone else does. We will do right.”
I. Do right because it is right.
A. 1 Peter 1:16 “...Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
1. God is Holy and does only that which is right.
2. Genesis 18:25 “...Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
3. As Christians we are to bear the family resemblance.
B. Do right for the right reasons.
1. Some do right out of fear of punishment
a. Wicked men obey from fear; good men, from love. Aristotle
b. Hebrews 2:15 “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage”
c. The man who obeys God solely from a sense of fear will never know the joy of obedience.
d. 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
2. Some do right out of pride.
a. Matthew 6:1-2 “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
b. This philosophy is seen in the words of the little poem ”Not Even a Whisper?” by Katie Kellogg:
I do my good deeds secretly.
No words must get about.
Still, it is rather annoying
When not a word leaks out. - Katie Kellogg "Post Scripts" in The Saturday Evening Post. July/August 2006, p. 96.
C. Do right for God’s glory
1. We need a heart that desires to do right because it is right. We need a heart that desires to obey God because we love God.
2. 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
3. Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
4. Back in the days before we had electric street lights, it was the lamplighter's business to light the lamps, not to make himself seen. What matters it, if people take little notice of you? The important thing is to make them take notice of your light. You do not need to seek to be seen of men, but you do need to shine that men may see. - copied
D. It is never right to do wrong to do right
1. In Romans 3:8 we learn that Paul in his preach of salvation by grace was falsely accused of saying, “Let us do evil that good may come.” To which philosophy of the end justifying the means Paul justly and throroughly condemns.
2. Dr. Bob Jones used to thunder from the pulpits across America, ““It is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right.”
3. We never have the right to do what God said is wrong regardless of what we think or the reasoning behind our actions.
4. The perfect example is that of Saul in 1 Samuel 13:6-14 “Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth Aven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits. And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”
